IN-FORM Super League leaders Huddersfield have booked their place in the quarter-final of the Challenge Cup with the minimum off fuss.

The Giants made light work of taming Co-operative club Swinton Lions by cruising over for nine tries.

But just as pleasing for the home side will have been the efficient manner in which they went about their defensive duties to snuff out Swinton’s attack and prevent them from scoring.

And, all credit to their opponents, who certainly tested their hosts’ tryline on several occasions to make it at times a pretty competitive affair.

As a result, the Lions could count themselves unlucky to have been nilled – even though the Giants were able to shuffle their side to freshen them up.

Huddersfield welcomed back Greg Eden and Lee Gilmour after they were rested for last week's Super League win at Bradford Bulls.

There was also a second Giants debut for Scott Moore, who shared the hooking duties with David Faiumu, which meant a run for Luke Robinson in the unaccustomed loose-forward role.

The regular No9 got the nod to allow Kevin Brown to have the weekend off, along with Eorl Crabtree, Jermaine McGillvary and Larne Patrick, who had all featured in the Odsal mud seven days before.

But despite the number of switches it made no real difference to the way the Giants went about their business as they cruised effortlessly into a 34-0 interval lead.

Swinton did start brightly to force two goalline drop-outs inside the opening five minutes and then threatened the break their duck midway through the half on the back of breaks from Huddersfield-born Darren Hawkyard and Martin Ainscough.

For the rest of the half, however, it was all one-way traffic as the Giants crossed for tries at will.

Danny Brough set the ball rolling after seven minutes when he bumped off a marker and then stepped past the remaining cover to glide over and add the first of his five first-half goals.

Try No2 came four minutes later when powerful charges from Dale Ferguson and Luke O'Donnell enabled David Faiumu to mark his 100th Giants appearance by dummying over from close range from acting half-back.

Faiumu was again at the heart of Huddersfield’s third try, running across the face of the Swinton defence and feeding the on-rushing Lee Gilmour to charge over with ease.

A Brough 40-20 then set up the next score, with Greg Eden juggling his way to the line from the subsequent scrum after being fed by Robinson.

Jason Chan was the next on the scoresheet, cutting inside from the right and shrugging off several tired tackles to score by the posts.

And five minutes before the break Scott Grix dive effortlessly over from acting half-back close to the line.

The interval provided little respite for the Lions as the Giants reached the 40-mark within three minutes of the restart, with Robinson’s reverse pass sending Eden over for his second.

Swinton did cross shortly after through Ian Mort, but his pass from centre partner Sam Reay was ruled forward.

That was the start of a good Swinton spell of pressure, when the visitors had a total of three Slaithwaite Saracens representatives on the field, with Chris Clarke coming off the bench to join the Hawkyard brothers.

At the same, however, the Giants did look as if they were going through the motions, with one eye clearly turning towards Saturday’s Super League top-of-the-table clash at Catalan Dragons.

As a result it took them 25 minutes took extend their lead when Robinson’s neat pass sent Joe Wardle clear to feed the supporting Jamie Cording to mark his first senior appearance of the season with a try.

He then doubled his tally with five minutes remaining after latching on to sharp play from Aaron Murphy and Brough added conversion No8 to finish with an individual points tally of 20.